I have no lust after power but wish with as much fervency as any Man upon this wide extended Continent, for an opportunity of turning the Sword into a plow share.
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Author: Redactor
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Bong Hits, Car Misses
Two social developments are about to collide — for our good?
First up, the relaxing of the Drug War approach, at least against marijuana use.
The Drug War didn’t work. Increased drug use, even in prisons, suggests there was something fundamentally wrong with the strategy.
With medical marijuana legalized in 19 states, and near-complete decriminalization in Washington and Colorado, we will see what happens when the black market is cut out of the social picture. Will people become less responsible? More? Will there be little change?
The worst thing about drug use is incitement to violence; the second worst thing is decreasing personal responsibility, perhaps especially relating to automobile usage. Marijuana’s violence-promotion seems completely a factor of the black market. But, like alcohol mis-use, marijuana imbibing can impair motor functions, and lead to traffic accidents, even fatal ones. That’s quite bad.
How to control this?
Well, Washington State’s decriminalization law, I-502, had built in a THC indicator for inebriation: the “five nanogram rule.” Alas, evidence suggests it’s, well, the wrong number. Too extreme, too picky, too low, as Jacob Sullum reports at Reason.
Obviously, how to incentivize good driving and responsible drug use, and dis-incentivize reckless driving and drug abuse, will continue to be a problem.
Still, a second social development may provide a long-term alleviation of the problem: driverless cars. The successes of the Google self-driving prototypes, and the legal preparation for this, may soon provide a real and safe alternative to inebriates driving around helter skelter.
Progress comes in unexpected ways.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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George Washington
My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth.
The IRS has a “Love Story” relationship with citizens. Being the IRS means never having to say you’re sorry.
Actually, in real life, as opposed to cinematic catch phrases, people who care about each other do often feel a need to genuinely apologize about actual wrongs. But the IRS doesn’t care about us except insofar as we have wallets. And doesn’t feel sorry about anything they do to get our cash or to protect their turf except insofar as they get caught.
Getting caught isn’t so bad. The worst is a little public embarrassment and maybe having to fork over some of the money provided by all taxpayers to a subset of all taxpayers. Example: the agency has agreed to pay $50,000 in damages to the National Organization for Marriage, whose tax return and donor list the IRS illegally divulged to an opposing political group two years ago.
The guilty IRS employee has still not been identified. And the IRS is not really regretful. All spokesman Bruce Friedland will say is that privacy law “prohibits us from commenting.”
This isn’t the only recent occasion on which IRS has divulged private tax-return info for ideological purposes. What about an employee’s abuse of the private tax information of U.S. Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell during a political campaign? What about Lois Lerner’s illegal provision of tax data on tax-exempt organizations to the FBI?
Yes, the IRS targets us ideologically, in addition to the other ways they target us. And they’re not sorry.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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George Washington
A slender acquaintance with the world must convince every man that actions, not words, are the true criterion of the attachment of friends.
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George Washington
The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and respectable Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations And Religions; whom we shall wellcome to a participation of all our rights and previleges, if by decency and propriety of conduct they appear to merit the enjoyment.
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All the Way
Iraq is a mess. Two presidents have informed us that the Iraq war is over and the mission accomplished. And yet the scions of Al-Qaida are on the march, conquering the country city by city. The U.S. is said to be turning to . . . Iran for help.
In the ’80s, the United States government armed Iraq with weapons* to war on Iran, a country that had just undergone a revolution and humiliated the U.S. with the hostage crisis. Saddam Hussein was “our friend.”
Now, after the U.S. has executed this Hussein, and destroyed Iraq’s ruling leach class, the Sunni Ba’athist Party — after a jury-rigged government and American-trained army failed to withstand assaults from a core group of true-blue-jihadists in the form of ISIS — the old enemy Iran is being dubbed a savior.
My suspicion is that Iraq cannot and should not be “saved.” It was the construct of British imperialism and the mapmakers of the Versailles Treaty. It is easily divisible into of three countries because there are three distinct groups of people: Sunni populations, Shia populations, and Kurds to the north.
One Iraq or three nations?
Here’s the good news: This isn’t our choice to make.
Sure, the military might of the U.S. could “pacify” Iraq for a time, and arguably for the next 100 years — installing and uninstalling and always complaining about one Iraqi regime after another, providing an occupation force to quell disturbances — only to see the old feuds erupt anew once we leave.
Why do it? Why lose one life to such a mission?
Let Iraqi Shia, Sunni and Kurds do the fighting and dying . . . and the deciding.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
* Recently declassified documents also show U.S. complicity in helping Iraq to target its use of chemical weapons against Iran.
Time, gentleman, please!
North Dakota legislators had introduced HCR 3034 and passed it at the pleadings of Secretary of State Al Jaeger. The old-timer had argued his office needed more time: time to review petitions, time to accommodate legal challenges to ballot measures.
Democracy can be such a fast-moving target, er, process, you know.
HCR 3034 became Measure 1, a constitutional amendment to change one thing: the length of time citizens had to circulate petitions. It moved the deadline for signature turn-in from 90 days prior to an election to 120 days prior, thereby cutting 30 days from the citizens and giving it to the Secretary of State, who assured everybody that his extra time would “safeguard the credibility of the petition process.”
The measure passed two weeks ago, in part because it was conducted in a low-turnout primary election.
Most times politicians avoid citizen input altogether, in their fight against initiative. But in this case, politicians nudged citizens into sacrificing their own advantages to make it easier for the insider class.
It’s admittedly not catastrophic. Worse anti-initiative measures have passed elsewhere.
But could there have been a telltale sign of the malign intent here, not seen by the voters? Nixing those 30 days did at least one crucial thing: it disallowed signature gathering at the biggest and most popular event in the state: the state fair.
Could it be that it was not “time” at issue, but timing?
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
P.S. You can follow initiative and ballot access news at Citizens in Charge.
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Auberon Herbert (1838-1906)
I venture to prophesy that there lies before us a bitter and an evil time.
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Townhall: The Aged Cheese Stink
When regulators go by the books, common sense goes by the boards.
At Townhall.com this weekend, the subject is cheese. The cheese may stand alone, but artisanal cheese makers stuck together, and got something of a reprieve, from the people in government who think they know best.
- The original FDA ruling that started the stink: here.
- Why this was so wrong-headed, according to the Cheese Note blog: here.
- The coverage and appraisal of the contretemps in Forbes: here.
- For contrast, consider the latest cheese news: a Velveeta recall. Why? Not enough preservatives! The Big Cheese story, here.